EXTRAORDINARY CHARGE OF CONSPIRACY.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 657, 5 April 1870, Page 4

EXTRAORDINARY CHARGE OF CONSPIRACY.

.[EtIROPEAPr MAIL.] At the Wands worth Police-court, Wm. Skeplehorn, and his wife Sarah, appeared to answer a summons of Mr Thomas John Ironside, a silk buyer, of Wood street, Cheapside, charging them with conspiring, together with other persons, to injure and prejudice the said Thomas John Ironside i by then and there falsely representing a certain female child to bo a ohild to which Louisa Maud, his wife, had recently given birth, knowing such child to be the child of one Fanny Wood, with intent thereby to deceive, injure, and prejudice him. Mr Edv.in appeared for the defendant, and Mr V". Willis for the prosecution. The complainant was sworn, and said : On the 29th of November, 1866, I was married to Louisa Maud Owen, at St. Saviour's Church, Haversrock-hill. In February, 1867, we went to live at Duns-ford-villas, Merton-road, Wandsworth, and we continued there until the following November. In the month of August in the same year we went to Oxford, accompanied by a male friend. We rowed down. On the 16th my wife, whom I judged was pregnant, became unwell, and returned to town by to am alone. On the following Wednesday I telegraphed from Windsor to her. I received a telegram in reply, stating, "Cannot come. Just confined of a little girl. Come home at once." I arrived home that evening, and I found my wife in bed, and an infant in bed with her. The female defendant was in the room. I went to my wife, kissed her, and congratulated her. I took up the child and caressed it. The female defendant said the child was very much like me. Both Mrs li'onside and the defendant drew particular atteution to the hands and forehead. The female defendant told me I ought not to remain in the room too long, for fear of producing excitement in my wife. I retired, and left them iri tho bedroom. I slept in the adjoining chamber for more than a fortnight. The female defendant remained in the house between live and six weekß, acting as nurse. The child remained with me, and I treated it as my own. 1 had my suspicions aroussd above eighteen months ago that the child was not mine, but I continued to support it by money payments. After we left Wandsworth we went to Gloucester street, Regent's Park, and the child was taken with us. I treated it as mine until February or March, 1868. When I returned home from Oxford I spoke to the female defendant about the midwife. I asked who had attended Mrs Ironside. Either my wife or the defendant said a midwife. I said T thought it was better to have a doctor, but Mrs Ironside said she preferred being attended by a woman. I asked why the midwife was not there. The female defondant said that Mrs Ironside was going on very well, and she thought her services were tot required, but if Mrs Ironside got. worse she was to be sent for. Mrs Ironside told me at the time it was arranged to give the midwife five guineas, but I objected to the full amount, as she had not paid that attention which I thought she ought to have done. I gave my wife the money to pay her. The arrangement was co pay the female defendant LI a week and her board. I saw the male defendant at the house several times, for the first tinie in the same week, and he congratulated me on being the father of the cLld, and said it was like me. In the early pait of 1868 I called at the house of the defendants. I saw the female, and I asked her to tell me the truth about the mock confinement. She turned pale, and said she would not say anything. She said, "If you want to know you must see my husband." I pressed her to tell me, but she said I had no business to upset her, as she was near her continement. She lost her temper as I pressed her to tell, and said, " I am. not a woma;i like Mrs Ironside, who pretends to be in the family-way when she is not." I said, " The. remark you made proves that you know the child is not mine." I left, but returned the same evening, and saw both defendants. The male defendant said he would not tell me anything. He said the proper person to get the information from was the midwife. He did not tell me who she was, but said I could do my best and worst. He said I had not behaved like a gentleman, because they had not been paid the last part of their money. I gave the money to Mrs Ironside to pay them. Mrs Ironside left me on the 4th of June, 1869. She first left me in February, 1868, just prior to my visit to the defendants. Something I heard after she left induced me to pay the visit. She remained away for two months. She returned, and we lived together up to June, 1869. In the early, part of 1869 we were residing in Charterhouse square. On returning one afternoon I met the male defendant on the stairs. He then said he wanted to see Mrs Ironside, but I showed him the. door and he went away. Cross-examined : I am not divorced from my wife. She had no money. I was fond of the infant until I was informed it was not mine. She seemed fond of it. Miss Emily Medhurst, who cried at intervals, and was allowed to be seated, said : I am nurse and midwife atNewington Workhouse. I have been there five years. 1 believe I first saw Mrs Ironside in August, 1867, at the workhouse. She asked me to be kind enough to assist her in supposing that she had had a child. She told me that she was married, had been in the family- way, and miscarried ; that she felt disappointed in not having a child, and that her husband would like to have one. She also said that she had been with Mrs Skeplehorn to a lying-in hospital, and had selected a child, and that she would like to adopt it. She asked me to accompany her to Wandsworth, in order to mako it appear that she had been confined. I met her at Waterloo Station, and we got out at Clapham Junction. 1 believe it was on a Tuesday in August, We had a cab, and on the way stopped at a butcher's shop. I bought a sheep's pluck. I got it by Mrs Ironside's instructions. When we arrived at her house I saw a servant and a young female, a cousin of Mrs Ironside's, In the course of the evening Mvg Ironside suggested that the servant and her cousin -should go out, and they went, Mrs Ironside tdld me that ahe had arranged for some one to bring, a child into the house, I and Mrs Ironside were on the watch, and a' woman arrived with an infant in her anus, A man came with her, ruid he was

supposed to be her husband. The male defendant was the man, and he brought something in a paper, but I cannot swear whether it was a pinole, or some liver We were all in the kitchen together when Mrs Ironside said she wished to have the child, so as not to disappoint her husband. After the conversation, the male defendant left the house. Either Mra Ironside or myself said, " Take it back, take it back." That was before he left, lie sneered at us, and made some remark that ho was surprised at us, that it was nonsense, and that we must go on with it. j Something tantamount to that. The I woman and her cousin returned home after Mrs Ironside went upstairs to her bedroom. Mrs Stephenson remained in the house. I let the servant and cousin in between eleven and one o'clock. The woman who brought the child had the care of it in the bedroom. The cousin asked me how Mi's Ironside was, I said she was all right. I said it was all over. The cousin knew what I meant ; as Mrs Ironside had feigned illness. She asked if she could see Mr 3 Ironside, and I said she had better not. Mrs Skeplehorn said she would make up the fire to burn the the pluck, to make proof of the completion of the birth. She afterwards said she had done it. I think it. was after the servant came home that she went down for that purpose. 1 stayed there until the early train in the morning. As far as I know Mrs Ironside was not delivered of a child. Mrs Stephenson acted as nurse, and gave the child food. On the following Sunday the male defendant called at the workhouse and wished me to go to Wandsworth. He blamed me for not continuing to act, and said I was spoiling the whole affair. He urged me to go down and attend, but I refused. I said I was not aware Mrs Ironside was doing anything more than what her husband was cognisant of, but, on going to the nurse I found it was not so. I told him that my position was such that I would not risk doing anything that was dirty or underhanded. He told me Mrs Ironside was waiting to give me L 5. I said I would not go, and neither did I. 1 received no remuneratii.il for ray services. Fanny Wood, the mother of the child, said. — I am single, and live at the Duchess of Clarence public-house, Vuaxhall Bridge road, Pimlico. On the 28th or 29th of July, 18G7, I was confined of a girl in St. Mary's Workhouse, Newington, where Miss Medhurst i 3 midwife. I left three weeks after my confinement, and M T ent with the child to the Lying-in Hospital, York road, Lambeth, to get an engagement as wet nurse. A female servant came, and asked me if I would like to see a lady. She said she did not require a wet nurse, but a child to adopt. I saw Mrs Ironside, who passed as Mrs Owen. Mrs Skeplehorn was with her in the waiting-room. Mrs Ironside asked me to let her have my child to adopt, but I refusud at first, I afterwards consented. Mrs Ironside said it must be a fair baby. Mrs Skeplehorn said it was a very nice baby, and tin night it would do. Mrs Ironside agreed to give me clothes, and to see that I was kept comfortably until I got a situation. I went with them in a cab to 78 "York road. The child was dressed in workhouse clothing. Mrs Skeplehorn went out sometimes, and the child was dressed in very nice clothes. I went with Mrs Ironside to the workhouse, and left the baby with Mrs Skeplehorn. We returned to No. 78, and there I saw the child. Soon afterwards Mrs Ironside left. Mrs Skeplehorn said she thought it was a good thing for me to give up the infant, as 1 could not provide for it myself. I saw the male defendant once. He was in the house, but I did not see him. I left at nine o'clock, and the child with Mrs Skeplehorn. I went on many occasions to ask after the child. The defendants never told me anything about the plan. When the child was six weeks old I saw it at 78 York road. Mrs Skeplehorn was nursing it. Mrs Ironside asked me if I was still in the same mind to give up the child. I said " TJes," and that I was more reconciled. I signed a paper to the effect that 1 would give up the child for adoption, and never trouble after it, I never have. . Miss Fanny Searle, cousin to Mrs Ironaide, residing at No. 2, Chipp street, Brighton, said that in August, 1870, she was on a visit to Mr and Mrs Ironside, at Dunsford villas, Wandsworfch. She recollected them going to Oxford. Mrs Ironside returned alone, and complained of being unwell. Witness was under the impression that she was in the familyway. On the following Tuesday Mrs Ironside went to town, and returned in the evening with Miss Medhurst, the workhouse nurse. At the suggestion of Mrs Irouside witness and the servant went to the Christy Minstrels, and returned at half-past eleven o'clock at night. Miss Medhurst let them in, and said Sirs Ironside had given birth to a little girl. About an hour afterwards witness saw Mrs Ironside in bed, Miss Medhurst and th« female prisoner being in the room. Witness: kissed Mrs Ironside, and looked at the child, which was lying upon an ottoman at the bottom of the bed. She then left the room. The wituess also stated that she remembered the female prisoner burning something. Miss Medhurst left the next morning. Witness stayed a month, and the female prisoner remained in the house during that time. Witness believed that the female prisoner asked her if she thought the child was like Mrs ironside. She said she could not very well judge. She also believed the prisoner said the hands were very much like his. She thought Mrs Ironside kept her room about a fortnight. She saw the male prisoner twice at the house. Elizabeth Cotterill, the servant, gave similar evidence. Mr Albert Calkin Lewis said he was solicitor to the prosecutor. In November last he accompanied Mr Ironside to No. 78, York road, Lambeth. He saw both prisoner!?. Mr Ironside opened the conversation by stating, that he had come to know the truth about the cliild. They abused him, and told him that he had better go to the midwife. Witness pointed out the seriousness of the case, and advised them to confess. Mrs Skeplehorn said they had had so much trouble about i it that she did not care if he did give them five years, They called Mrs Ironside by a great many names, and the male, defendant said he supposed that it was not a hanging matter, The last thing he said was that it would be time enough when they were brought up to speak the truth, . : Mrs Ironside was then called, but by the advice of her attorney, declined to give evidence, The prisoners Mere then committed for trial, one surety of L4O being accepted lor each,